...

I was hanging out with all of my friends in the village of Ruben, where our adventure began. The atmosphere felt cool and breezy, the green grass was swaying gracefully, and the tall pine trees stood bravely as the gigantic Tree of El towered over us. I loved nature; I'm an elf, after all.

"Phew... after so many years, we've finally saved Elrios from destruction." Elsword, the red-headed boy said.

"Yeah." Aisha replied with a smile. "I've restored my magical power now, so I'm satisfied. Beware of the Elemental Master!" she joked. 

"Ha, ha, very funny. But, you are inferior to the almighty Rune Slayer!" Elsword countered, grinning.

"Wanna bet?! Let's have a duel!" Aisha challenged him, wanting to test her ability.

"Hell yeah! Let's do this!" he was about to unsheathe his sword, before his older sister, Elesis, stopped him.

"Elsword, calm down. This isn't a time to fight." she sighed.

"But Sis! You're the BLAZING swordswoman, yet you're telling ME to calm down?!" he shot back.

"That is irrelevant." she facepalmed.

I could hear Hagus, the Village Chief, chuckling. "You kids are sure rowdy today. Well, I shouldn't be calling you kids anymore, haha. You've all grown to be wonderful warriors, and I'm proud."

"Thank you, Mr. Hagus!" Ara smiled.

All of us continued to converse about various topics for a while.

"Say, since our journey has ended, doesn't that mean we have to go our separate ways now? I know Rena has to return to the Elf Village, Eve has to complete the resurrection of Nasods, I have to return to Hamel, Ara has to go to Fahrmann, and et-cetera..." Chung spoke sadly; it was clear that none of us wanted to leave each other.

"That is correct." Eve replied in her usual monotone.

It was hard to believe that our expedition was over. All the pleasant memories we've made over the past years felt like they all happened yesterday. 

"We shouldn't be so upset, we can still visit each other and set up rendezvouses every now and then, too. We'll all be friends forever." I tried cheering up my comrades with a smile.

"Rena's right." Raven agreed.

"Luckily, Ciel will forever serve as my guard, since we are bound together by my contract, but I'll miss the rest of you dearly, huhu." Lu smiled too, as Ciel nodded.

"Then, this is goodbye." Add declared.

...

I was ambling to the Elf Village, the precious place I grew up in. The forest path was beautiful, the trees and grass complimented each other to create a exquisite landscape. It was rather sunny out, a perfect day for children to play. I started thinking about all of my allies, and my friendship with each of them. The one most precious to me... would be Raven. He's quite calm and collected most of the time, but I know that he's trying to hide his dark past. Raven; named after the bird, which is a part of the nature I love. The thought of Raven and the memories I shared with him made me smile in reminiscence. 

I must have been thinking about him during the entire trip, because I arrived before I was aware. I was finally home.

...

---[CHAPTER 1 - SEPARATION : END]---